Bryn Mawr College Film Studies Program

The Film Studies Minor

The Film Studies Minor at Bryn Mawr College provides students with a background in the history, theory, and criticism of moving images, with an emphasis on the analysis and interpretation of cinema as a key form in modern visual culture. The program emphasizes film as a formal system with its own set of clearly identifiable properties and conventions, which nevertheless invites unique opportunities for interdisciplinary study. Course offerings are drawn from English, History of Art, modern languages, History, and the Creative and Performing Arts, giving students access to a range of interpretive methodologies, national cinemas, and film styles and genres.

The student who minors in Film Studies acquires the critical skills central to the discipline. Through contact with the materials and methods of her major, she also develops intellectual, cultural and political perspectives that broaden the angle of critical vision. Students also have the opportunity - unique to a program like Bryn Mawr's - to experience every level of the curriculum in small classes, with intense, focused discussion, close contact with faculty, frequent and challenging writing assignments,technologically sophisticated learning conditions, and opportunities for guided research.

REQUIREMENTS

One introductory course in the formal analysis of film (e.g., ENGL/HART 205: Introduction to Film or HART 299: History of Narrative Cinema)
One course in film history or an area of film history (e.g., ENGL/HART 238: Silent Film; RUSS 110: Soviet and East European Cinema of the 1960s: War, Politics, and Gender)
One course in film theory or an area of film theory (e.g., ENGL/HART 306: Film Theory; HART/ENGL 349: Theories of Authorship in Cinema; HART/ENGL 327: Feminist Film Theory and Practice)
Three electives of the student's choosing, drawn from an approved list of course.

IT IS ALSO REQUIRED THAT

At least one of the six courses must be at the 300-level.
Courses that fall into two or more of the above categories may fulfill the requirement of the student's choosing, but may not fulfill more than one requirement simultaneously.
Students should design a program of study that includes a range of film genres, styles, national cinemas, eras, and disciplinary and methodological approaches.
Students are strongly encouraged to include in their minor at least one course centered on the examination of a non-Western cinema and one course involving filmmaking practices which pose alternatives to mainstream entertainment cinema.
Final course approvals are subject to the Program Director's discretion
Courses listed on the Program web site are approved for the minor unless otherwise noted. If a course is not listed on the web site it has not been approved for inclusion in the minor.